Weekly Poll #287

6/15/2025

In the summer and fall of 1996, four VHS tapes featuring two Scrappy-Doo episodes each were released by Cartoon Network. In this week's poll, you'll be voting for your favorite pair of Scrappy-Doo episodes from those VHS tapes! This is the last compilation set I'm planning to do a poll on, but I do have an idea for another poll series involving Scooby home media coming up in the next couple weeks!

Here are the results for last week's poll:
What is your favorite Classic Scooby-Doo VHS pair?
Haunted House Hang-Up / A Night of Fright Is No Delight - 15
A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts / Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf - 10
Scooby-Doo and a Mummy, Too! / What a Night for a Knight - 5
Foul Play in Funland / Bedlam in the Big Top - 4
Mystery Mask Mix-Up / What the Hex Is Going On? - 4
Which Witch Is Which? / Nowhere to Hyde - 2
That's Snow Ghost / Go Away Ghost Ship - 2
Mine Your Own Business / Decoy for a Dognapper - 0

15 Comments

Matt

6/15/2025 10:00:15 am

I guess The Headless Horseman of Halloween/Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats VHS gets no poll lol. As someone who has all of these tapes, I definitely watch two more than the others, and that will come into account for tiebreakers

4. A Nutcracker Scoob- Just like with Winter Wonderdog, it gets screwed by having by far the worst episode here. The Nutcracker Scoob is a classic though

The Nutcracker Scoob- 8, Alaskan King Coward- 3: Average: 5.5

3. The Ghoul, the Bat, and the Ugly & To Switch a Witch- This one actually ends up tied with my number 2, but I really do not have the same nostalgia for this VHS that I have for the other two left. Both are fantastic episodes, especially To Switch a Witch... Which is showing up again lol

The Ghoul, the Bat, and the Ugly- 7, To Switch a Witch- 9: Average: 8

2. A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle- I actually still watch this VHS every Halloween because the title episode is not on DVD. It is a classic episode, and I always tune into The Tar Monster as well, another great episode

A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle- 9, The Tar Monster- 7: Average: 8

1. Wedding Bell Boos- If you know me, of course this one wins lol. Wedding Bell Boos is my favorite Scrappy era episode. It is just such a delightful episode, one of the best light and feel-good episodes this franchise has to offer. And To Switch a Witch is easily my favorite episode of the third season of The Scooby Doo Show. These are two amazing classics and a pretty easy winner for me

Wedding Bell Boos- 9, To Switch a Witch- 9: Average: 9

WildwindVampire link

6/15/2025 04:02:03 pm

Admittedly I wasn't really quite sure to put that one, since it didn't really fit into a clear category like the others did.

2. I still watch this one every Halloween as well. I typically watch "The Tar Monster" as well, even though I don't like that one as much as you do.

Matt

6/15/2025 04:54:01 pm

Oddly, it is The Ghoul, the Bat, and the Ugly that is a bit of the outlier in my mind because Wedding Bell Boos, Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle, Nutcracker Scoob, and Headless Horseman of Halloween were all released as holiday VHS tapes, so those go together in my mind a bit more. The Ghoul, the Bat, and the Ugly was more of an individual release, but in terms of the sets of episodes without that context, I understand why the Headless Horseman VHS seems like the outlier lol

WildwindVampire link

6/15/2025 05:24:19 pm

That's fair, I hadn't thought of The Headless Horseman of Halloween as being a holiday VHS (probably since I never owned it), but you're right that they could definitely be grouped together that way!

Becker

6/16/2025 02:55:37 pm

Agreed on the order.

Spooky Space Ghost

6/15/2025 12:28:38 pm

Hmm, not easy... I don't often get the chance to watch the episodes with Scrappy since they're on TV when I'm at school, and DVDs are mostly impossible to find.

For example, I haven't seen A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle. As for The Ghoul, the Bat and the Ugly, I watched them on TV... last Friday, haha! Luckily, I've seen every episode of The Scooby-Doo Show on the list, which helps me make my choice.

This time, I went for The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly / To Switch a Witch.

I really enjoy the Scrappy episodes where the whole gang is present. It provides a good balance between mysteries similar to the Scooby-Doo Show style and the misadventures and chases in the Scooby-Scrappy-Shaggy episodes.

The mystery was a lot of fun. I liked the idea of letting us believe that Daphne was The Lady Vampire. Instead of looking for the culprit, I was more interested in finding clues that would exonerate Daphne. The monster wasn't necessarily striking (not like the ones in Legend of the Vampire :), but I'm terrified of vampires, so her performance convinced me...

The clues scattered throughout the episode were also interesting. I really liked the ruse with the mirror!

As for Scrappy, he was very funny when he wanted to fight the vampire. In fact, I think Scrappy mainly serves to illustrate how fearful Scooby and Shaggy are. I really like it when Scrappy leads his friends into sticky situations, plus he has a knack for annoying the bad guy by promising that his Uncle Scooby will splat him!

This is my first time writing a post about Scrappy, so I'm excited to share my thoughts on him!

Okay, let me say this up front: I like Scrappy-Doo. I enjoyed his mysteries solving with Scooby and Shaggy. I just think Scrappy was created during a slowdown in the franchise. The mysteries and monsters from that era aren't as good as those in Where Are You or The Scooby-Doo Show. If Scrappy had appeared in episodes worthy of the franchise's early years, I think the general opinion would have been very different.

I'd also be curious to know what kids in the early 1980s thought of Scrappy-Doo. Did Scrappy make it easier for younger audiences to connect with the show? Maybe he brought new people into the franchise, like 1988's A Pup Named Scooby-Doo did.

I'm trying to remain calm, but I'm deeply disappointed by the hate Scrappy is getting. His role as a villain in the 2002 live-action film is already a lot (I actually promised never to watch that movie), but his recent appearance in Velma is the most shocking (I read that in an article. I'm under the legal age to watch that series. Too bad :). What kind of world are we living in if Scrappy-Doo kills Velma? At this rate, Scrappy will unfortunately meet the same fate as Winnie the Pooh when he will enter the public domain...

Poor Scrappy. I sometimes imagine him alone, abandoned and despised by everyone, listening to Radiohead's How to Disappear Completely. I recently read on your blog the words of someone who worked on Where Are You Now (I can't remember hisname). While everyone can have their own opinion on the subject, I still found those words very harsh towards Scrappy.

You know, for about a year now, I've been wondering how Hanna-Barbera cartoons will evolve in the future. I have a feeling they'll get even stranger, less refined, if I may say so myself. Maybe they'll even disappear altogether.

Last summer, I belatedly discovered plans for a new Flintstones series. Seeing Pebbles as an adult seemed interesting to me, but I didn't like the idea of sending Fred into retirement and presenting us with the end of the Flintstones universe with the arrival of another historical era (I looked at the image released by Warner Bros., and frankly, the town in the background looks more like the world of The Jetsons than a Bronze Age town. Scary...).

I'm still quite young, and if these cartoons disappear in the future, I'm going to feel really bad...

So I thought that if no one seems to want to make Hanna-Barbera episodes like those from the good old days, maybe I could give it a try.

So I took a notebook and wrote down all the story ideas that came to mind. A simple summary before developing them later. I mainly work on The Flintstones and The Jetsons. I considered Scooby-Doo to be the Hanna-Barbera series that survived best and that its future should be decent (this was before seeing Velma). I started a few of them and showed them to my French teacher (by the way, I live more specifically in Quebec, and French is my first language).

I tried to write a story with Scooby-Doo, but I'm less good with Mystery Inc. than with characters like Fred Flintstone or George Jetson.

But when I will get better with Scooby-Doo, I'd like to bring Scrappy-Doo back in. He could appear from time to time, or just answer the phone. In short, I'd like the franchise to reconcile with him. I'm going to try to find a story that could work with the live-action Scooby-Doo, so I ca

Spooky Space Ghost

6/15/2025 01:36:20 pm

Excuse, my post is too long and I just saw that just a part of the message was send haha. Here's the end :

I'm going to try to find a story that could work with the live-action Scooby-Doo, so I can undo the ending.

I also thought that Scrappy might not work as well with Scooby and Shaggy. I think Shaggy and Scooby need their scenes together. So, why not see if Fred, Daphne, or Velma are better companions to Scrappy? He was already very good with Daphne. It would be fun to see the calm and thoughtful Velma collaborate with the energetic and reckless Scrappy. Fred shares a bit of Scrappy's personality. They would probably make a great duo, especially since we'd get to see more of the Velma-Daphne pairing.

I hope I succeed. I dream of becoming a screenwriter for Warner Bros., since I write quite well (and I write long ones too, but you've already noticed that haha). I've finally realized I could never. It doesn't pay enough, and if Warner Bros. plans to get rid of Looney Tunes... I'll send them my stories when I die.

So, I hope my comment was relevant. Thank you for reading it and responding to my previous message about my project. You're right, Legend of the Vampire hits very hard with its monsters and mystery. It's worthy of its predecessors. I hope we get films like it in the future. Thanks for playing along! I'm starting to work on my Abracadabra-Doo analysis. I should have it published by the end of the week, while I finish my final exams. Thanks again for having me. It's been one of the best experiences of my life :)

WildwindVampire link

6/15/2025 04:19:44 pm

I agree that the episodes with the full gang are generally the strongest Scrappy episodes. Although, in this case, it so happens that the other three episodes here are my favorites of that era of the franchise. If they ever air the others on TV, I would definitely recommend checking them out as they are all really good.

I also really liked the Lady Vampire episode! I think you are thinking of "I Left My Neck in San Francisco" though instead of "The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly" (that episode had the Shadow Creature as the villain). :)

I'm not really sure what fans in the 80s thought of Scrappy at the time! I think you bring up a really good point though that the Scrappy era had a lot of flaws besides Scrappy himself, particularly the lower-quality plots, less cohesive writing, and shifting away from mysteries. Like I mentioned recently though, I'm also a bit tired of the Scrappy hating jokes. They have gotten a bit old at this point, so I hope they move away from doing that as we enter a new era of the franchise. And you aren't missing anything from not watching Velma imo, haha. As you probably saw if you read my review, the series was overall very poor imo. The writing was pretty awful and overfocused on the shock value. Even my favorite two episodes are the show are just ones where the ridiculousness of the writing worked decently well, and I wouldn't really say they were "good." Like I mentioned in the article you mentioned, I also found the writer (Jonathan Stern)'s words about Scrappy to be overly harsh and unnecessary.

That's cool that you've written Hanna Barbera stories! I also would have enjoyed seeing the new Flintstones series! It would have been neat to see Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm even further along in life, since The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show already showed us them as a teens (and Fred and Barney near retirement age), and there's not been any media that's explored what happened after they got married (beyond briefly in A Flintstones Family Christmas from the 1990s). I'm also curious to see what will happen with the future of Hanna-Barbera series. Besides Scooby, I unfortunately think you're probably right that a lot of them will continue to fade into obscurity. Not sure if you've seen it, but I loved Jellystone! and really enjoyed their take on the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe. Although it was quite a bit like Be Cool, which I remember you said you didn't like as much as other series, so maybe you wouldn't enjoy that series.

That's really cool that you want to become a screenwriter with WB! I hope you are able to do that someday! :) I like your ideas of exploring Scrappy's dynamic with Fred, Velma and Daphne. His dynamic with Daphne is really interesting (and Scrappy is portrayed as more mellow) in the 1983-1985 series, so it'd be interesting to see the dynamic he would have with Velma and Fred.

I'm so glad you've enjoyed commenting on here! Looking forward to reading your thoughts on Abracadabra Doo.

Spooky Space Ghost

6/15/2025 06:33:18 pm

Oops! I mixed up two episodes! The Ghoul, the Bat and the Ugly was the episode that aired right after I Left My Neck in San Francisco! I still enjoyed it. I really liked the choice of villain, since he seems to be a victim of the other characters' discontent. Thanks for correcting me :)

As for Velma, I unfortunately didn't get a chance to read your analysis. Since Velma is my favorite character, the less I know, the better! I only did some light research on the general context. I can live with the physical changes made to the gang, but I'd like to know who's the one who turned Fred and Scrappy into killers.

And of course, I'm going to take advantage of the summer to advance my stories ! Thank you for encouraging me in my dream :)

I can't wait to get your opinion on my analysis of Abracadabra-Doo! Then I'll do an analysis of another movie on the list, probably one from What's New, hoping others will join in!

See you tomorrow !

WildwindVampire link

6/15/2025 07:15:45 pm

No problem! And that totally makes sense about not reading my review of Velma. I didn't enjoy the series either so I don't think you're missing out on anything haha. Good luck with your finals!

Mr Neither

6/15/2025 01:54:25 pm

Really close between the top two, but ghoul bat and the ugly just edged it for me.

WildwindVampire link

6/15/2025 03:59:19 pm

It was fun to put together a list for this one! My order was pretty clear even without calculating the averages, despite that my favorite Scrappy episode of the bunch doesn't get my vote.

4. The Nutcracker Scoob (10/10) / Alaskan King Coward (4/10)
This episode is an all-time classic Christmas special, and is one of my favorite Scrappy episodes of the franchise. Despite this, "Alaskan King Coward" drags this set way down for me and puts it in last place. I do still have a little nostalgia over the episode, since it was actually the first Scrappy short I ever saw, but it is much worse in quality compared to any other episode here.

Average: 6.5

3. A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle (10/10) / The Tar Monster (6/10)
This is my favorite Scrappy episode of the entire franchise! That said, it was hard not giving this one my vote, but I've just never loved "The Tar Monster" as an episode. The first half is pretty cool, but the second half feels like it falls into same trap of many other season 3 episodes, where a lot of the episode is spent focusing on Shaggy and Scooby running around, rather than the whole gang.

Average: 8

2. The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly (9/10) / To Switch a Witch (9/10)
I really enjoy both episodes in this set. Both are amongst my favorites of their respective seasons, and the first one is actually my favorite Scrappy episode of the 1979 series. "To Switch a Witch" is also a really great episode with an excellent villain and interesting mystery. However, despite both episodes being really good, one option manages to beat this one out.

Average: 9

1. Wedding Bell Boos (10/10) / To Switch a Witch (9/10)
Another one of the best Scrappy episodes out there. As Matt said, this is such a fun and feel-good episode. I love the New England atmosphere, and the villain being one of Shaggy's ancestors adds an extra level of intrigue to the mystery. It's really fun getting to meet all of Shaggy and Scooby's relatives too. Pairing this one with "To Switch a Witch" feels perfect given the New England setting, and it makes more sense here than with "The Ghoul, the Bat and the Ugly." Despite not being my all-time favorite Scrappy episode, "Wedding Bell Boos" and "To Switch a Witch" is definitely the strongest set of episodes here.

Average: 9.5

sdf

6/16/2025 07:20:26 am

Thats pretty much my list too. Would switch no1 with no2 though

Matt

6/16/2025 09:12:19 am

It was a little jarring seeing Halloween Hassle so low on your list until I remembered the episode scoring system LOL

WildwindVampire link

6/16/2025 08:51:53 pm

Lol! Yeah, I definitely would have rated it way higher had it not been paired with another episode. Unfortunately, "The Tar Monster" happens to be one of my least favorite episodes of its series, which brought it way down.

Weekly Poll #287

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